Pubdate: Fri, 13 Jul 2007
Source: Mountain Press, The (TN)
Copyright: The Mountain Press 2007
Contact: 
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=29620&BRD=1211&PAG=461&dept-id=169702&
Website: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=1211
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1995
Author: Lionel Green, Sports Editor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

DRUG TESTING CALLED OFF

SEVIERVILLE - Call off the drug testing and all those hastily 
scheduled meetings.

In response to a July 2 opinion by the Tennessee Attorney General's 
Office, the Sevier County Board of Education has decided to hold off 
on its new drug-testing policy for athletes that went into effect 
just the day before.

Sevier County high school athletic directors had scheduled a number 
of meetings this week to inform athletes about the new policy and 
distribute parental consent forms. The actual drug testing was slated 
to start July 31.

But not anymore.

The AG opinion says Tennessee school districts cannot randomly test 
students for drugs just because they participate in extracurricular 
activities, even though two decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court say 
random drug testing does not violate a student's rights.

To avoid the possibility of costly litigation in the future, the 
Sevier County Board of Education decided to cancel the upcoming drug tests.

"The Sevier County Board of Education was surprised and disappointed 
in the opinion of the Tennessee Attorney General's Office ... 
limiting the school system's ability to engage in drug testing of 
students," the board said in a press release Tuesday. "The school 
system's attorneys have reviewed the Attorney General's opinion and 
most respectfully disagree with the opinion. The drug testing policy 
that was prepared dealing with extracurricular activities is in 
compliance with United States Supreme Court decisions.

"It is the school system's feeling that the policy adopted was valid 
and would withstand judicial scrutiny, but on the other hand, to go 
through such a process would be long and might lead to expensive 
litigation for the school system. Due to the cost factor of such 
litigation, the Sevier County School System is going to hold in 
abeyance its extracurricular activities drug policy in hopes that the 
Tennessee Legislature will enact legislation in keeping with the ... 
United States Supreme Court decisions and enable school systems to 
enact policies, such as we did, in order to protect students in the 
system from drugs."

Two Supreme Court decisions shaped student drug-testing laws - 
Vernonia School District vs. Acton in 1995 and Pottawatomie County 
vs. Earls in 2002. Both ruled that randomly testing students who sign 
up for extracurricular activities does not violate their privacy. 
However, Tennessee's law includes additional language that restricts 
testing of students unless school officials have reasons to suspect drug use.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman